Host Steve Harvey Botches Miss Universe Announcement

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Dec. 21, 2015 / 3:54 AM GMT / Updated Dec. 21, 2015 / 10:41 AM GMT

By Richie Duchon

"I have to apologize."

Those are the words Miss Universe host Steve Harvey was forced to utter — and may regret for years to come — after mistakenly crowning Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez-Arévalo, as the winner of the 2015 beauty pageant.

She wasn't.

After Gutierrez-Arévalo was crowned and was performing the ritual wave to the audience inside the Planet Hollywood Las Vegas Resort & Casino, Harvey came back on stage to deliver the awkward and devastating news.

Harvey attempted an apology on Twitter. That did not go well, either, when he misspelled both Colombia and Philippines in the tweet, which has since been deleted.

Miss Universe 2015 host Steve Harvey apologized on Twitter for mistakenly announcing the winner of the pageant in Las Vegas Sunday night. The tweet, which misspelled the names of the home countries of the two finalists was later deleted.Twitter

In an official statement, Miss Universe pageant officials apologized to both finalists. "The excitement of live TV was evident tonight on the Miss Universe stage with over 10 million live fan votes tabulated," pageant officials said. "Unfortunately, a live telecast means that human error can come into play. We witnessed that tonight when the wrong winner was initially announced."

Harvey also went on to correct the apology and express his regret.

Secondly, I'd like to apologize to the viewers at that I disappointed as well. Again it was an honest mistake.